


Healing a Heart of Kyber

by indigo_inks



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Healing, Gen, Kyber Crystals, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 07:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25346884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigo_inks/pseuds/indigo_inks
Summary: Rey can't understand why her rebuilt lightsaber doesn't work.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Rey
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: Every Woman 2020





	Healing a Heart of Kyber

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).



It should have been easy. And yet, it just _wasn’t_.

She’d been a scavenger on Jakku. Until quite recently, in fact, understanding bits of tech – their uses, how they fit together, how they worked, how they didn’t work, how to make them work again, dammit, so that she earned enough portions to feed herself – that had been her entire _life_.

More recently, she’d acquired the books. An entire uneti tree library’s worth of Jedi lore and wisdom at her fingertips. And if that weren’t enough, on top of all that, she had her Master. Leia Organa, Princess and General of the Resistance. And yet…and _yet_ …

Rey thumbed the switch of the rebuilt lightsaber and held her breath as the blue laser beam shot forth from the refractory emitter. For a moment, the beam held steady and true. Rey felt a surge of hope in breast – maybe this time it would work!

But no. The beam shuddered, snapped, and abruptly died in a shower of sparks from the lightsaber’s overloaded circuits.

“The construction was perfect! I triple-checked everything! I don’t understand!” Rey shouted up into the treetops as she hurled the useless hilt away from her. She knew she ought not to vent her frustrations like this, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d already lost count of the number of times she’d rebuilt Master Skywalker’s lightsaber and failed.

She didn’t understand why she’d failed. That was the worst part.

Rey felt a comforting hand land on her shoulder. She turned to face Leia. “I don’t understand,” she repeated, her tone more temperate.

Leia was holding the discarded lightsaber. She must have retrieved it. Now, she held it out to Rey. “Perhaps you should ask the kyber crystal,” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘ask the kyber crystal’…?” Rey was confused.

“The Force moves through all things, even kyber crystals,” Leia replied. And when Rey’s brow furrowed with doubt, she added: “We can do it together.”

They settled down onto the forest floor, seated, legs crossed, face to face with one another. The lightsaber lay on the leaf litter between them. Then Leia began to guide Rey’s meditation, and with her Master’s strength to bolster her own, Rey focused her mind upon the kyber crystal inside the lightsaber.

It felt like falling. The kyber crystal was a vast universe unto itself, a complex matrix of attractive and repulsive energies. The energies were moving, vibrating in harmony, like music. _The kyber crystal was alive_.

And one of the notes was discordant.

“It’s injured, Master,” Rey said to Leia. She felt Leia’s agreement.

How…? But of course. When she and Kylo Ren and fought for the lightsaber, they’d done more than tear the hilt in half. They’d also struck a grievous blow to the heart of the kyber crystal. A tiny crack had opened up inside of it. It was an injury, like an open wound – and it needed to be healed. Somehow. But she didn’t know how.

“It was my fault!” Rey lamented. “I pulled too hard. I was so desperate to take! But if I’d just let him have it…”

“He would have corrupted it with the dark side,” Leia finished softly. It was true. The truth was hard sometimes, and this was one of those times.

“Maybe…I can make amends? Give, instead of take…?” That seemed right, and Rey could feel Leia’s encouragement.

So, instead of pulling, she _pushed_. She pushed her life energy into the kyber crystal – a gentle push, not too forceful. Offering, not imposition. And after a minute, a moment, or an eternity, the kyber crystal’s song changed, a glorious harmony once more.

Rey eased herself gradually out of the meditation. Her lips curled upwards into a peaceful, contented smile, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that Leia’s mouth mirrored that smile.

“Try it again,” Leia suggested.

And when Rey thumbed the switch of the rebuilt lightsaber, the blue laser beam shot forth, and its blade was straight, steady, and true. _Healed._


End file.
